Great White Shark Caught Off Rockport

Eight foot shark was accidentally caught and released by local lobster fisherman.

A tagged great white shark was caught and released off the coast off Rockport, Massachusetts. Rockport is located North of Boston and well North of Cape Cod, a well known white shark hangout.

According to GoodMorningGloucester the shark was hooked by Gil Mitchell near Thatcher Island. Once Mitchell realized the shark was tagged he released it immediately. The shark didn’t even hit the boat; as soon as the transponder was spotted, it was let go.

The shark is being tracked by ocearch.org and has been named Cisco. Ocearch is a nonprofit that is recognized for generating data related to the tracking of keystone marine species. They mostly track great white sharks and tiger sharks to understand the animals migration patterns.

As of the time of this writing the shark still seems to be cruising along the Massachusetts coast. These sharks are known to travel great distances, traveling as far south as South Carolina and has a total travel distance of 2732 miles. Given that Cisco was tagged in October of 2016 he has put some miles on his…fins? As great whites can reach up to 20 feet long Cisco is still quite young yet so the migration data should be coming in for years.

The coolest thing about this shark is how Cisco acquired his name. He was named after Cisco Beach in Nantucket and for Cisco Brewery. The brewery also created a beer call the shark tracker light lager to support ocearch research.